A difference a year makes: Maria Bondareva

Starting a new semi annual blog here at GTT and I am calling it, A difference a year makes. In these blogs I will be picking out gymnasts with tonz of up side that I hope somehow get it all together by next years Olympics even though it will be a huge up hill battle against time. Hey Jaycie Phelps finished 24th ish at JR Nationals in 1993. Miracle’s can happen:)

This was my favorite floor routine at Russian nationals. Sure she’s too tiny to tumble and has a 4.5 start value but even with those limitations she still made finals at Russian Nationals. She is also beautifully inconsistent on beam and has a 6.1 start value on bars where apparently she also has consistency issues but with her pretty form and pretty execution I have some faith that little Maria will all of a sudden get it together and reward my faith in her, next year when it matters.

There are videos of Maria from 2012-2014 on youtube but none from 2015 but the video above ( at least not that I can find) but she has the same beauty to her bars and beam routine that she has on floor. Unfortunately she also has the same inconsistencies.

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Notice I didn’t use the word potential above ( I hate the word potential. It basically means didn’t live up to the hype) but Melanie and I have gotten into a bit of a discussion in the comments section about Nia Dennis. Melanie seems to think being a junior is where you are supposed to be inconsistent and I kind of agree with that but Melanie also thinks Nia has potential on floor and vault and IMO Nia is an inconsistent gymnast with skills too hard for her which is why she is always messing something up.

What do you think? Melanie also thinks there is a conspiracy to why Nia is all of a sudden being left out of the loop where as I think it’s based on the fact all Nia does is fall.

I am trying to write a blog at least every other day so come back if you can. I have been very lazy with the blog lately so while I am on a run I will try and keep it up. If you have any blog idea’s let me know.

82 Responses to “A difference a year makes: Maria Bondareva”

Wow, this really is a good discussion. I don’t think it’s a conspiracy theory like Gabby being favored by Marta more than Nia. My thought is that in a crucial time in Nia’s development as a gymnast, Gabby fell from the sky and landed at her gym. Maybe Nia works better by herself with the full attention of her coach. Maybe the constant distraction hampered her progress. Who knows. I do think she was promising on floor and vault (I won’t say that she had potential in honor of you). Remember that floor routine from Nationals where she practically stuck everything? She must have really regressed.

To be honest I had to go back and take the word potential out because apparently I used it and didn’t realize it ( I changed it to up side which is practically the same thing)but I have to remember that this year is not important in the grand scheme of things as much as next year is. Some gymnasts need more time to get their consistency together.

This is the year you make a move (Bridget Sloan in 2007) and next year you shine.

Oh and someone has to comment on Maria. I actually thought twice about the Nia discussion in fear the point of the blog being missed and that seems to be an issue so far.

Maria…I’m hesitant to make a statement on her because she seems so hot and cold. Beautiful gymnastics, absolutely, much better than Shelgunova, but there doesn’t seem to be much progress in the past two years. Still, I’m a sucker for beautiful toepoint and knees, so I definitely am rooting for Maria to do well. They should send her to Mustafina’s coach so he can help her build some strength.

Isn’t Nia injured? It seemed like she had an ankle injury that only let her train bars for a while and that’s why we only saw the bars video from camp. She was posting stuff awhile back about the poor timing of the injury but working through it and whatnot.

This is somewhat unrelated but maybe it is. Can we also talk about Bailie? She placed 10th at the last camp and supposedly is having trouble adjusting to her height. She few a bunch. Maybe that’s why skipped 2014 Nationals. Conspiracy lol

Bondareva has a 4.5 SV because she didn’t get the 3/1 in the beginning (credited as 2 1/2) and therefore didn’t have a dismount. She also didn’t finish her second D turn and the tour jeté 1/1 in the beginning.
If she gets credit for everything she has a potential SV of 5,9. Not too shabby.

Regarding her routine, I think domestic judging was hardest on her? Does anyone know about who her coach is and if he/she is on Valentina’s shit list?

I think the crowd really enjoyed her work in person so GTT and others are not alone in their appreciation. I think she could be even better with a little more height, she has much better form and shapes than many others competing.

Speaking of Gabby, she did an interview with USA Gymnastics a few weeks ago. She basically said her reason for going to Rio was because no other gymnast has ever gone to two Olympics before, and she wants to be the first.

Excuse me Gabby, but no. Chill your ego child! Amy Chow? Shannon Miller? Dominique Dawes? Hello?! For someone who claims her life is all about gymnastics, she sure doesn’t seem to know very much. She needs to sit her butt down and get educated because constant remarks about how she is the first/wants to be the first “fill in the blank here” just make her so…..ugh!

PS its not letting me change my username like you wanted. I don’t know why.

They made similar comments during the American Cup commentary, and had to add the revision that they were talking about AA champions. She still wouldn’t be the first – we all remember Nadia, right?! – but her ego sometimes blinds her to the facts of reality.

Not defending her case I can’t stand Gabby (and I hope she is far far from the Rio team, plz!!!!) but I thought she meant no gymnast won AA at Olympics twice and that was her goal. The reference to Comaneci during Anerican cup sort of then makes sense because she won AA in 76 but a silver in 1980.

That said Gabby’s information is still incorrect because Liudmila Latinina (56, 60) and Vera Ceslavska (64, 68) won back to back AA gold. But that was a long time ago.

Simone Biles existence makes the gymnastics so much more enjoyable. If Simone stays healthy Gabby has no shot in hell of beating her. The only event Gabby has on Simone is bars and Simone’s form is decent which means it doesn’t matter what Gabby does she can’t beat Simone and her power. I take back anything I have ever said about this sport being boring because it’s dominated by one gymnast ( tho I love how Kohei can’t be beat lol) Simone is a God send.

I know. I love Simone. Her gymnastics are powerful but she makes it look pretty. I can watch her floor any day, everyday. Snd her relationship with her coach is just blissful. I love how smily Simone is. Her bars are weaker but they are not weak. Her 6.1 on bars plus she is training a Mustafina dismount is more than enough. Even Marta (in her post SCAM interview) said that Simone no longer has a weak apparatus.

I need Simone to win AA World’s and Olympics because 1) that would be real history (referring to Gabby) and 2) Nastia will no longer be able to say how she lasted thd entire quad to win AA because Simone is so much dominant in her quad. So crossing my fingers, pretty plz that Simone wins AA in Rio. Simone’s biggest competition –maybe Key (if she gets it together), I don’t like that much so yes Simone all the way.

P.S I would love if the 2nd AA spot went to Aly. I hear she is even improving those bars. Like Simone, I love Aly!! 🙂

I don’t watch Gabby videos because her arrogance annoys me but people were complaining before that she was bragging about coming back because no one had ever been to 2 Olympics before. Let’s be real here the girl is an uneducated 5th grader and acts like it. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out she never graduated High school.

Aw I love that floor routine. It’s not perfect but girl has pizazz and expression. I can overlook lack of difficulty and non-perfect landings as such for someone with such a beautiful toe point, carriage and pretty dance.

This, as opposed to Gabby’s statement, is much nicer. She wants to try, have no regrets knowing if she tries her hardest to make it back to an Olympics. And in doing so, she’s going to work her butt off to earn her place.

Money: so I have been trying to figure this out for some time. I think Romania screwed up big time not sending Iordache to American Cup.

For their appearances and placements, Lopez earned $55,000 (120 pts), Black earned $33,000 (95 pts), and Ferrari earned $16,000 (85 pts). Iordache, winning two cups earned $30,000 and had 100 pts before American cup. If she had finished 6th at American Cup, she would have earned an additional $33,000 in prize money for winning the jackpot (which went to Lopez).

So I don’t know how much of the prize money goes to the athlete’s federation and what is lost as tax and other expenses – but $63,000 is over 250,000 in (Romanian) Leu.

I wouldn’t throw away $30,000 that I had basically earned, but that’s me. Although I didn’t ask about it, I wonder what the cost/benefit ratio is/was for Iordache to attend the cup. Without know much more, I think it would have been strongly positive for the romanian delegation. Especially as their financial support is tied to its success (medals and titles), why not win the series and stamp that on to funding requests?

Just don’t care it should be better. But I really suspect Derek still has heart and passion on it if he want to continue his show in Radio City. Not to say how Derek will feel if he finally find the true colors of that Russian.

I’ll definitely try to. I’ve been quite busy with school work and what not. In addition, gymnastics has frankly got a little boring. That said, I watched the American Cup today, which was the first gym competition I’ve actually watched since Worlds in 2011. Nastia was terrible to listen to, but I guess it’s renewed my interest in gymnastics. With things looking like they’re heating up/getting more interesting now, I think I’ll be back more often.

Sorry no new blog. My nieces suckered me to their house tonight and I just got home even tho they have been in bed for hours. They tried to talk me into moving in with them. I love these. Kids. I promise to blog tomorrow.

The YouTube Channels susanw and Anne-Sophie-Henri have some videos of English and French Champs if you want to continue discussions on particular routines. Claire Martin and Catherine Lyons have new choreography on floor. Gympower.nl TV has the Dutch qualifications, I think some of the Dutch girls can give the Russians a run for their money in terms of artistry on floor.

Lol I didn’t watch but I got 2 emails on the subject already. I guess Shawn tweeted she just got home and mentioned her 2 ex dance partners but not nastia and someone said to vote for Rumor Willis because she is the best dancer which in turn is a vote against Nastia. That sounded familiar:)

I think lots of audience may also be tired of Derek’s past Victories and golden-boy treatment. So there would be some anti-Derek voters as well. (Although I like his partnership with Shawn and Shawn is the best dancer in All-Star Season)

Just hope Derek realizes he cannot afford both jobs in LA and NY then he can get rid of it early.

We should get those shirts…like Team Shawn. Those would sell out, and the “Team Nastia” ones would go on super-sale eventually. Let’s talk about form, Nastia. Shawn out-did you on your “best” event, UB, when it came to form. Anyone can look at Nastia’s butt-ugly dismount and see that one.
Not surprised Nastia replaced someone. I believe it when they say DWTS wanted her in 2008 or so but not now. She’s about as unknown as Carly Patterson anymore.

Kind of mentioned above, but I figured I’d bring everyone’s attention to this summary from BuddyTV.

“I’m pretty sure [Nastia] threw some shade at Shawn Johnson when she said she was more elegant and graceful while Shawn was just powerful as a gymnast. Let it go, Nastia, it was seven years ago and no one cares.”

BuddyTV also considers Nastia to be the favorite this year. Dear lord, help us all if she wins…

Not to necessarily support Nastia but just throwing it out there. If anything, Shawn started the whole shadiness with Dancing with the stars and Nastia. As soon as they announced the cast, Shawn was basically good luck to Willie and Mark…”I’m rooting for you.” I think she even mentioned Derek at some point plus that tbt photo yesterday of her with Derek on Dancing with the Stars. All of that is pretty shady to me. Again, not defending Nastia–they are both bad and should get over it lol

They are both bad! But Nastia’s comment aired for the first time yesterday (at least it’s a first of it Ive seen) and Shawn posted her good luck comments weeks ago when they first announced the contestants. Either way, I didn’t think Nastia was that good, I actually watched it lol

I’m actually surprised Aly hasn’t posted anything about Danxing with the Stars. Her media team definitely know what they are doing!

Too bad Asac never made it to the show. I would have loved to see her instead.